another week, another somewhat lackluster performance… really, i didn’t do badly last week, i mean how could you, with so many games that were OBVIOUS?… i was 9-5, which is good, but i’d prefer to get in the double digits… overall, that puts me at a cool 50-25…

moving on… is it just me or are there a lot of teams that are really, really bad this year… sure, there are a lot of teams that seem really good, but i think a lot of that is because they’re in contrast with really, really bad teams… take last week’s scores… the average margin of victory was almost 16 points… 3 teams won by over 30 points (5 over 20)… that’s some bad matchups…

what particularly irritates me, though, is that a couple of those went the wrong way (according to my picks)… the 49ers and the Jaguars simply didn’t show up last week… anyway, i digress… this week, i’m taking a break from the “How Bad are THEY” feature (partly because i think it falls to my beloved Bills this week) and instead talking about something else that’s been bugging me about football this season… more after the jump… let’s move foward…

HANGING CHADS…

now playing: Hanging By a Moment – Lifehouse

i think it’s time to move away from the “wildcat” offense… as a league… it’s getting pretty annoying and that may be largely because every team that’s doing it is only doing it so that they’re not the only team left not doing it…

what i mean is, when the Dolphins debuted the wildcat last year, it was a creative solution for a struggling offense… it fits the team’s style and addresses their needs – specifically the need for a quarterback… it still works for the Dolphins largely because they’re still approaching it creatively and they still haven’t got a quarterback worth anything… sorry Chads…

Every other team in the league is simply trying not to get left behind… they’re all playing copycat with their wildcat, but it’s just plain silly for them to be spreading a QB out to the right as a WR… offensive coordinators need to tap into the imagination that they’ve ignored while trying to do keep up… just stop… you’re not fooling anybody… trick plays are cool and all, but if you can’t consistantly get first downs, tricks aren’t going to save your season… focus on the basics, not the frills…

WHO’S GONNA WIN

now playing: Mad Season – Matchbox 20

This week, there are a lot of good match-ups… looks like the bad teams are playing bad teams and good teams are playing good teams… for the most part… which makes things a little bit difficult when it comes to weeding out which games to spotlight… as such, i’m going to cop out a little and feature a double whammy in the early games…

First up, the Baltimore Ravens head over to face the Minnesota Vikings… two weeks ago, this looked like a much better game… the Ravens were cruising through the season, promising to be a Superbowl contender and the Vikings, of course, are still on that path…

so what happened? How on earth did the Ravens get derailed?… Ray Lewis would argue that the refs have interfered unjustly… first with the dirge of “Tom Brady Rule” penalties in New England and then, this week, Lewis was fined $25k for a bell-ringing hit that has been described as “helmet-to-helmet”, but looks to me to be shoulder-to-shoulder and clean… either way it was late in the game, called a personal foul, and gave the Bengals fifteen yards and a fresh set of downs on a game-winning drive that had almost stalled…

that said, the Ravens are angry… and they’re still good… really good… but so are the Vikings… and i’m gonna have to say that the Purple People Eaters are going to demote the Ravens to a 500 team… Vikings 38, Ravens 24…

Next up, without hesitation… the Saints and the Giants… I’ve not seen too much from either team to be honest… but both teams are justifiably undefeated and this is going to be a really tough game… it could easily go either way and this may even be a preview of the NFC Championship this year…

The saints have proven that their celebrated offense is still something to talk about each week and, more recently, people have started waking up to realize that the Gregg Williams defense is respectable… the Giants seem destined to work from the opposite direction… their defense is highly-touted and their offense is coming around…

so who’s going to win… that’s a tough question, but i’m going to go with the Saints at home in a close one, 24-21

and the rest of the early games…
- Jags redeem themselves, and crush Rams
- Panthers will beat Bucs
- Pack shuts Lions down
- Bengals win over Texans
- Steelers over Browns
- and, *sigh*, Chiefs outscore Redskins

For the late games, the key matchup is the Cards at the Seahawks… with Hasselbeck back at the helm, the Hawks looked pretty good last week, just like they looked the first week… just like they’ll probably look this week… but on the other side of the ball, the Cards also have the tools to launch a high-powered offensive attack… this could be the shootout game that everyone enjoys until the end… i’m calling Cardinals 52, Seahawks 45…

and finishing out Sunday afternoon…
- Eagles rock Raiders
- Patriots pound Titans
- Jets depress Bills fans everywhere…

Sunday Night is perhaps not the most exciting game, with the Bears heading to Atlants, but it should be interesting enough… the Falcons exploded last week, manhandling the 49ers, and often threaten to put up lots of points… the Bears always threaten to have a good defense… i see this as decent game with the Falcons pulling it out, 21-18…

and last but not least, the Broncos face the Chargers on Monday Night Football… this should be a pretty hard-fought game between the bitter rivals… the Broncos are playing a solid season and the Chargers seem to be limping along… honestly, i think until the Bolts turn the team over Sproles instead of LT, they’ll continue to stumble through the games… that said, i’m picking the Broncos to maintain their unbeaten streak, winning by ten, 31-21...

AND THAT’S IT…

goodbye.

peace… love… bdg…